DRAMA SERIES: "My So-Called Life: The Complete Series" Shout! Factory. Six discs. $69.99.
Two Fridays ago, Winnie Holzman went to New Brunswick to see her husband, veteran character actor Paul Dooley, appear with Jack Klugman in a revival of "The Sunshine Boys" at the George Street Theater.

Meanwhile, not too far off, actress Claire Danes was preparing to make her Broadway debut in a revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion."

As it happens, Holzman, Danes and Dooley figure in another revival -- that is, a renewed interest in the short-lived but much-loved TV drama "My So-Called Life."

Created by Holzman and starring Danes (and in a much smaller role, Dooley), the show lasted only 19 episodes on ABC in 1994 and '95. And yet it's been in syndication ever since, has influenced longer-running shows that followed and now gets a deluxe DVD treatment with Tuesday's release of Shout! Factory's six-disc box set, "My So-Called Life: The Complete Series."

Says Holzman on the phone en route to New Brunswick, "We didn't even have a whole season, in terms of today's television. So it's amazing to me, amazing to all of us, when we get together and talk about it, that it's the little show that doesn't die."

Those in front of the camera and behind it get together and talk, a lot, in the bonus features included in the DVD set. First and foremost, there's Holzman, who created the series during her time as a writer on "thirtysomething," and Danes, whose character, Angela Chase, is described as "a 15-year-old on the cusp of becoming something."

Indeed, Danes, now 29 but only 13 when she was cast, was on the cusp of becoming something. As the angst-ridden but endearing Angela, she embodied and anchored the series with a teen realness that influenced the later "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Felicity," "Gilmore Girls," "Veronica Mars" and other shows.

In a separate phone interview to promote the DVD release, Wilson Cruz -- who played one of Angela's closest friends, a gay teen named Ricky Vasquez -- recalls the first time he realized that the then-unknown Danes was something special.

"I remember doing a scene with her during a (script) read-through and thinking, 'I better bring my A game,'" he says. "She really set the bar for all of us. She was so natural and so obviously gifted, and she was capable of bringing out the best of all of us."

Danes' Angela is cute and bright, but coltishly unsure of herself and her place in the world, in her family and in high school. She struggles to relate to, and with, her well-meaning parents, Graham (Tom Irwin) and Patty (Bess Armstrong), who in turn often bicker over how to relate to, and with, a daughter struggling with identity and maturity.

Estranged from her oldest friend, Sharon Cherski (Devon Odessa), Angela has found a new circle of friends that includes wild child Rayanne Graff (A.J. Langer) and Cruz's sweet but troubled Ricky.

She's in love with an older boy, the dreamy rebel-without-a-future Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto), who keeps her dangling, while she keeps unrequited the affections of her brainy neighbor and classmate, Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall).

All of this and more is recounted in the DVD set's bonus features, which include audio commentary, several featurettes and interviews. Aside from the principal cast members, contributors include Paul Dooley, who played Patty's father and whose son from a previous marriage, Adam Dooley, co-wrote an episode; Lisa Wilhoit, who played Danielle Chase, Angela's younger sister; composer; executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick; and others.

(Missing is Holzman's brother, Ernest, the show's cinematographer.)

Herskovitz and Zwick produced the successful "thirtysomething," whose dramatic tone was similar to that of "My So-Called Life," but neither their pedigrees or anyone else's could keep "Life" afloat past 19 episodes.

The show might have been called "thirtysomething minus fifteensomething equals cancellation," an entity seemingly treated as an unplaceable problem child by ABC, which had difficulty pitching the series to any one target audience.

Though MTV recognized the show's appeal by airing reruns even as the series still ran on ABC, the larger network would not commit to a full season.

"We never allowed ourselves to think past four or eight (episodes)," says Cruz. "That way, we could appreciate and enjoy the work while we had it. We learned to love it while we did it and to appreciate every little nugget that was thrown to us."

Unless there's a "My So-Called Sequel," the series will stand as 19 episodes without a full-circle final show that wrapped up loose ends.

But Holzman, who went on to garner a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk award for writing the book of the Broadway hit "Wicked," sees only the sweet and not the bitter.

"It's nothing but sweet for me," she says. "The show makes me very proud and gratified, and I'm touched that people are still interested. I still have such a fondness and deep love for Claire and the other actors on the show.

"We did our show and we did the best we could. We weren't able to control whether the network believed in it or didn't believe in it. In the end, it didn't matter. What was important is that we made the show that we wanted to make and we made the effect that we made."

Husband and wife Anthony and Lopez play husband and wife in a biopic of salsa legend Hector Lavoe. If there's a commandment -- thou shalt not steal a film from your husband -- Lopez ignored it. She's a dynamo in a meaty role as Lavoe's combative, passionate, tough-talking better half. Extras: Making-of doc; commentary; deleted scene.

Moore and Krasinski play an engaged couple who submit to a harsh marriage-prep course administered by an off-the-wall clergyman (Williams). Although Moore and Krasinski manage real chemistry, it's a shame they couldn't have used it in a film less desperate for laughs. Extras: additional scenes; featurette.

Redoubtable British character actor Spall lands a lead role and makes the most of it, injecting both pathos and verve into the insightful true-life tale of Albert Pierrepoint, one of England's busiest executioners before his resignation in 1956. No extras.

Cheadle is likely to get an Oscar nomination for his electric performance as the late Washington, D.C., disc jockey Petey Greene, a legend of soul radio back in the '60s and '70s. But keep an eye on Ejiofor, who's superb in a less showy role as Greene's friend and program director. Extras: Featurettes; deleted scenes.